The Detroit Zoo

Because rain showers were predicted for later in the week, we decided to visit the Detroit Zoo on Tuesday. Here's a picture of the girls watching television that morning while Rich and I showered and dressed.

Anna is making her classic duck face in this one.

We have a family season pass to the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, which gave us a discount on admission to the zoo in Detroit. Total admission for four adults and three kids was only $36 plus we paid $5 for parking. Unfortunately, it was HOT. Like 91 degrees hot.

We hadn't brought any strollers with us on our trip so we rented a wagon at the zoo. Here are the girls waiting for Daddy to return with the wagon. They were HOT.

Thanks, Emily. I'm taking pictures of the train behind you now.

I can't be the only one who forgots to change the ISO on the camera. Am I? I had changed it that morning to take pictures in the hotel room and then never changed it back (ACK!) so all of my photos from the zoo were taken with an ISO of 800! I don't know why I can't remember to just switch it back after I change it.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the zoo. It was so much bigger than I thought it would be and it wasn't too crowded, which made it fairly easy to walk around with a large group. My aunt, cousin and brother had joined us so there were six adults, three munchkins and a wagon.

Thankfully, the zoo had many indoor exhibits which were well air conditioned. The butterfly exhibit was fantastic. (That was not air conditioned though.) We were slightly disappointed last year at the one in Providence, which we visited late in the season so there weren't as many butterflies. A macro lens would have been awesome but alas I had only brought my 35mm to the zoo.



There was also a brand new polar bear exhibit which was huge and had a tunnel where you could walk through the pool. Unfortunately, there were no bears in the water but we did see some out and about in the plains area. We overheard someone say that the bears had received vaccinations that day and wouldn't be swimming. But we did see some seals and the girls were happy with that.

Now, I try to be polite whenever strangers talk to us or ask questions about the girls. And 95% of the time, I am not annoyed or disgruntled. Just that morning, I had noticed an elderly couple, who had been eating breakfast at the table next to us in the hotel lobby, looking at the girls. During a lull in the noise, I overheard their conversation "...twins.....triplets." Near the end of the meal, the gentleman asked me how old the girls were and then he told us that they had wondered if they were triplets. They told us how adorable the girls were, etc, etc and I smiled and thanked them for their kind comments. I was not annoyed at all.

Fast forward to the zoo. We were in the polar bear exhibit when this woman pushing a stroller by us said, "Triplets! What fun!" I think what sets me off is when people talk about us as if we can't hear them. That's very frustrating to me because I CAN hear you. So by that point, my back was killing me. It felt like someone had whacked me a few times with a baseball bat and I was all sweaty and hot from shuffling three kids around so her comment slightly annoyed me but I figured that the annoyance was probably slightly situational.

About five minutes later, we ran into her again. I then realized that she was with a large group like us and there were three or four kids with her. We were standing right in front of her and she says to her husband, "Look at the triplets!" Okay, that bothered me. My children are not a zoo exhibit AND they are old enough now to understand what people are saying. I know she wasn't being malicious or anything but honestly, it's a bit weird. I didn't think of it until later but I told Rich that I should have yelled out, "Look at the lady with all the kids!"

The girls' most favorite part of the zoo was the playground, of course. The zoo had two large playgrounds, one being for small kiddos.

Can you see how pink Anna is in this one?

It's a side effect of the medicine she takes. We've been told to give her plenty of water in situations like this. When Grammy and I cathed her in one of the family bathrooms, we wet a paper towel for her to hold to her face. Poor baby. She's a little trooper.